161: “Use the force, Luke”

1978 | age 9 or 10 Luke’s under serious pressure now. He’s sweating and going blue in the face! Is it because he keeps on holding his breath before he shoots? Time to use the force, Luke!

ZRAP POW-POW-POW-POW!

BONUS CONTENT! More, extra panels on the back of a different page

This is the last of the TIE Fighter Attack pages. There are 2 more panels but I’ve added them to this update day as a bonus. I couldn’t make you wait 2 whole days just for those. Tomorrow, I’ll do another inbetween-updates update and upload the whole of the above detailed page.

Ben gave me his powers!
So?
I’m gonna use ’em…

Art Notes: Weird Colour!

This is probably later in the year than the «previous early 1978 page. You can see that my drawing had improved—a bit; that and my ability to convey continuous action. Isn’t that blue lighting on Luke very strange? Heck, isn’t his face very strange!

Luke’s under pressure, in the heat of battle

The blue face though… You’d think he should look red and orange from all the flames outside. That’d be the obvious thing to do. But actually, the cold blue contrasts very effectively with the warm red, heightening the dramatic impact. Which is interesting, because it reminds me of what was happening in mid ’80s mainstream movies when many films attempted to ape the style of Spielberg. Often you’d see people front-lit in cold blue with warm yellow back-lighting (or vice versa) giving them a contrasting rim-lighting color. Or the whole background would be bluey, with golden front light. It was a type of movie mannerism: less talented directors copying the surface effects of a great director’s style.

Mannerism

Much like the so-called Mannerism period of the late Italian Renaissance which was characterised by ridiculously—and poorly observed—muscly figures contorted into unfeasibly elaborate poses. All of it was a reaction to the art of Michelangelo—especially his figures in the Sistine Chapel frescoes. In a sense, you could say that Michelangelo and Spielberg each gave rise to some seriously dreadful art and movies. Through no fault of their own.

The Negative Influence of Star Wars

Similarly, George Lucas noticed that a slew of Space Films poured out of the studios after Star Wars’ phenomenal success. He’s often tried to explain that his film wasn’t about effects—but about the characters and the story. The copyists kind of missed the point.

Taken to ridiculous extremes: crap imitates crap and you get the awful films of Tony Scott giving rise to the even more monstrously dreadful Michael Bay.

Discussion (6) ¬

“I’m gonna use ’em!”
That’s what I would say if I discovered I had forciness.
And Uncle George must be swallowing his words now – ‘story’? ‘characters’?
Nah – it’s all about the SFX. I enjoyed the slew of ‘space films’ that followed – but will never forgive the entire cast and crew of ‘The Humanoid’.

Ah yes – The Humanoid: a film I never had the pleasure of seeing. I recall cutting the ad from the cinema page of the newspaper and wondering what it’d be like. Starved for Sci-Fi I’d watch ‘Jason of Star Command’ even though I could see how awful it was!

“Blue Milk” – good one! I never thought of it. Do you think Rod will mind if I post it on his wall?

Sergio Aragones? Not familiar with him. I suppose I’d draw on anything. Also: easier than putting in a new sheet of paper and then wondering what to do with the other blank half that would then appear in the first half of the book. I really should have been arsed to paste on a piece of blank paper! You see? I was never cut out to be a graphic designer. No effort whatsoever on presentation! 😀

Sergio Aragones is one of my all time favorite comic artists.
He is probably best know for being one of the “Old Men” of Mad Magazine, including the Marginal Cartoons (ie.cartoons drawn in the margins).

He is also well known for his Comic “Groo The Wanderor”, one of the first successful creator owned comics.